We got up early this morning at Oli’s house – we were feeling quite tired with sore bodies this morning. We wanted to set off early as we had a big day of cycling ahead of us – 120km from where we were in Bristol to Worcester. We said our goodbyes to Oli and thanked him for being a wonderful host and then headed off at 8am.
The first part of our ride was along the Bristol to Bath cycle path which is great and much more fun than trying to navigate through the traffic on the main roads of Bristol – especially at rush hour!
We headed for the Severn Bridge to cross over into Wales (as we wanted to tick off three countries as part of the trip).
The views from the bridge were amazing. It has to be the longest bridge I’ve been over!
We made a stop in Chepstow about 30km into the ride for a mid morning pastry – not just any pastry… M&S pastries – what a treat!
We got back on the bikes and the pastries powered us all the way up the Wye Valley, up and down the undulating roads.
Half way through the ride at about 60km we were ready for lunch. We knew there wasn’t going to be many places around so we had planned ahead and bought our lunch at the m&s we had stopped at in Chepstow. We just pulled over at the side of the road to munch it down before carrying on.
If I could sum today up in one word it would be HUNGER – no matter what I ate, as soon as I got back on the bike I was hungry again. Before the trip I had read a blog about LEJOG that said at round about day 5 your metabolism goes into overdrive – so I guess this was what was happening today! At the 80km point we went through the village Newent and decided to stop for a cuppa and cake at a very lovely little cafe called Manna’s house. It was very cyclist friendly!
The lady who owned the cafe was very sweet and funny and she asked us where we had cycled from today so we told her about our trip. She couldn’t believe how far we’d come and how far we were going. After we’d got our drinks and cakes she came back out carrying a cushion. She handed it to me and said ‘I thought you might like this Madam as I thought you might have a bit of a sore backside!’
After our cafe stop, we got back on our bikes for the last 40k of the cycle to Worcester. We cycled through lovely countryside.
We arrived at our Airbnb about 5:30pm, weaving in and out of the rush hour traffic in Worcester. It was lovely – and it even had a Bath and washing machine which we weren’t expecting – bonus!
We walked to the nearest shop and bought food for dinner. We both had hot baths and then cooked dinner – a tortellini veggie sausage pasta bake. Scrum!
We then chilled for the rest of the evening and watched the final of race across the world.
Summary:
Distance cycled: 120km
Elevation climbed: 1,294m
Time pedaling: 6h 33mins
Highlight of the day: Crossing into Wales over the Severn Bridge – it really felt like we were making progress. Also, 98% of the ride was good weather – our first mainly dry day!
Lowlight of the day: the backside was starting to feel quite sore today!
County count: 7 (3 additional today – Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire)!
Country count: 2!
To donate: https://www.justgiving.com/page/barry-towler-cycle-lejog
Towlers' Travels 
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